You can’t understate the power of the preorder. By allowing customers to order your product before it is released, you can secure more funding for it. This allows you to put more features into this product or push production on others.
But when you run a Shopify store, how do you push preorders? The answer: through the use of the right preorder app. Below are five of the best preorder apps for Shopify.
What is a pre-order app?
A preorder app allows your customers to buy a product before it releases. These apps allow you to create product pages for products you plan to sell in the future. Once the release date comes, you ride the hype wave by watching your product ship out.
Even if you release digital products, preordering is a great way to push hype. It allows people to look forward to the latest version of your app. So be sure you have a digital file manager alongside this list of preorder apps.
6 Best pre-order apps for Shopify
Regardless of physical or digital products, below are five preorder apps you can use.
- For digital products: Fileflare
- Timesact
- Advanced PreOrder‑Partial Pay
- Has preorder button: Globo Pre-Order
- Easiest for customers: Pre-order Today
- Best free option: PreOrder | PreOrder Now
#1: For digital products: Fileflare Digital Downloads
This one is for your digital stores out there. If you’re looking to sell digital products on preorder, then you would want to check this app out. They have a preorder feature which allows you to set a scheduled date/time of delivery of a digital product.
Fileflare was built by Shopify experts so they understand how a digital downloads app should work. Take a look at our review of selling digital products.
App Cost
| Plan | Cost | Features |
| Free | Free | 2GB Storage |
| Basic | $7 per month | 1GB storage |
| Growth | $19 per month | 15GB storage |
| Premium | $29 per month | Pre-order release date feature, 1TB storage |
#2: Timesact
Timesact by Kairock Partners SRL supports a wide range of tags for your collection. Whether you have out-of-stock products or coming soon preorders, Timesact works for both. So you can use it beyond preorders.
The ability to sell backorder products enables you to continue to earn money. To ensure you aren’t overwhelmed, you can also choose to backorder up to a limit. This ensures that product launches and restocks don’t result in you being overwhelmed.
It is easy to integrate with any store. You can also see the impact with a preorder tag on each collection page.
Timesact heavily pushes you towards its most expensive plan ($16 a month). But given its pretty cheap for how many preorders you get, that’s not a bad deal.
App Cost
Timesact doesn’t have specific names for their plans. You’ll find them under “Was…” as though they are constantly under discount.
| Plan | Cost | Features |
| Free | N/A | Only available for first 10 pre-sales |
| Cheapest | $6.65 per month | 10 pre-sales |
| Middle | $10.45 / mo. | 25 pre-sales |
| Most expensive | $16.15 / mo. | 50 pre-sales |
#3: Advanced PreOrder‑Partial Pay
Advanced PreOrder by Shine Dezign Infonet’s best feature comes back to the ability to make partial payments to hold a place in line. This further encourages a boost to your conversion rate, similar to the way GameStop handles its preorder system.
The system will help you by automatically notifying your customers when your item is back in stock. This way, you can receive 100% of the owed payments.
The main problem is that customers cannot see what items are on preorder. So no tags are found on your collection page, which might discourage customers who like clear communication.
Regardless, its simplicity on informing customers when upcoming products become available is great. So give it a shot to see how it works for you.
App Cost
| Plan | Cost | Features |
| Free | N/A | Four published pre-orders |
| Small | $4.99 per month | 15 published pre-orders and coming soon |
| Standard | $10.99 / mo. | 15 pre-orders with notification and geo-tracking features |
| Platinum | $19.99 / mo. | Unlimited pre-orders and better support |
#4: Pre-Order Globo
If you’ve read our review on product variant apps, you probably know about Globo. G-Variants is a great app. As you might imagine, it integrates well with its other app, Globo Pre-Order.
Globo Pre-Order is great because it has a working app network. In addition, the app provides excellent clarity on what is a preorder and what isn’t.
The big preorder buttons and product image labels give away everything. This involves less confusion for your customer.
Globo enables users to try it out with a seven-day free trial. The default plan is pretty cheap. What pushes it a bit lower on this list is that it does come with code. Most similar apps in this field are entirely codeless. Either way, you likely won’t need a developer unless you have weird needs.
App Cost
| Plan | Cost | Features |
| Free | N/A | Up to five products |
| Premium | $9.90 per month | Unlimited products, bulk configure, partial payments |
#5: Pre-order Today
Pre-order Today by Appilon Software Pvt Ltd likely has the most buzzword-heavy name on this list. But customer reviews don’t lie; this is a pretty comprehensive app.
The system’s best feature enables you to automatically switch from the add-to-cart button to other buttons based on inventory levels. You can also sell backorder products with the out-of-stock feature.
Regardless, the unique cart buttons are noticeable. So you won’t have any confusion when a customer makes an order.
The system is still early in development but integrates easily across multiple themes and platforms. I recommend you test out the free plan to see how it works. Given its relatively early stage of development, others do have more features.
App Cost
| Plan | Cost | Features |
| Free | N/A | One product |
| Starter | $7.99 per month | Five products |
| Pro | $14.99 /mo. | Ten preorder products |
| Premium | $24.99 /mo. | Unlimited products |
Conclusion – What to look for in a Shopify pre-order app?
A Shopify preorder app needs to (at the bare minimum) replace your “add to cart” with a “preorder” button. Beyond that, other features might include “out-of-stock” replacements. Always check the characteristics of these apps before paying for one.
I recommend running a few tests. All of these have a free version (or free trial). So don’t settle on just one; try a few to see what works best for your needs.
